


Among Us for a Year

by OliviaTheDragon



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27544846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OliviaTheDragon/pseuds/OliviaTheDragon
Summary: January Belverde's carreer has gone to hell. All he needs is a second chance, that's all, a chance to show that 156-18 was simply an outlier in his otherwise flawless record. And he's gotten that chance! Just the wrong kind. Oh well.Let's hope this crew isn't as bad as it seems.
Kudos: 1





	1. round 1 || chapter 1

|| and so it begins. apologies for the amount of exposition, next chapter is where things actually start happening! rights to among us belong to innersloth, characters to me. ||

"Captain January Belverde."

It had a nice ring to it, all things considered, and saying it out loud put a sweet taste in January's mouth, but the taste soured and the ring went flat when he was reminded by the numbers and names on his mission summary why he had really been asked to lead.

"The N.V. Skeld 365*." he began, already frowning as he got to the ship number. Very funny. He skipped to the footnote, and continued "The three - sixty - five was recently recovered from the black of space, after being as counted as "still on patrol" with no radio sound coming from it for four years."

"Of course they did." he spat, tightening his fists and letting the paper crunch in his hands. "Of course they put me on a slavaged wreck with an ironic name to shut me up. Of course-" he cut off, staring silently, openmouthed, at the crew list he had just spotted.

"You're joking." he said, as though the paper would answer. "This is ridiculous-" he slammed the paper down onto his table, making his drink and forgotten dinner bounce, and stormed over to his desk, punched in a number, and hit Call.

The line connected, and January broke into the speech he had come up with a moment ago.

"what is the meaning of-" he leaned forward, without even a greeting, he was far too shocked and angry for that-

"Captain Belverde. I hope you have a very good reason to bother me at this time of night." said the figure in the screen, their face hidden in shadow and backlit from a low overhead lamp. A click, and a desk lamp switched on and revealed the speaker, a wide-jawed person in casual Mira uniform. "I like to read before I've gone to bed, and you've interrupted my H.P. Lovecraft."

"Mx. Garnsun, there seems to be a-" January began, then cut off as he looked at the paper and laughed sharply to himself. The situation was starting to border on ridiculous the longer he looked at it. "-ah, a mistake with my assigned crew. It looks as though-"

"-They all have names that are related to months of the year?" cut in the Commander in Chief Riley Garnsun, and when January looked up, they were smiling in slight amusement. "Yes, I thought that was funny too."

"Relating to-" January gasped, glancing back and forth between the paper and the screen. "the names are all months of the year. Look, here's the cook, February Cher, and this is Irene Ren September, my second - in - command? And this one's put down simply as "June", surely that isn't correct. These are all callsigns, right?"

"Fortunately, no!" January's commander was smiling huge now "June had his legal name changed to June, apparently to..." they flicked through some tabs on their monitor and nodded "and I quote, 'better fit my [his] vibe'. Lieutenant September prefers to go by their surname, and the cook-"

"Alright, I get it." snapped January, putting his papers down on his desk and leaning into them, pushing his glasses up his nose and closing his eyes. "Might I ask why? I don't suppose that all of these people are wonderfully qualified as well as having names that fit a theme?"

"Oh, most of them are. September managed to keep their last ship running while their captain was incapacitated by food poisoning and finished the mission successfully, which is commendable to be honest."

"That just sounds like a mutiny with extra steps." muttered January, scanning September's list of qualifications. They have a history in forensic science? I'm willing to bet that they planted that bad food.

"I would go over the rest with you, but you have all of the background you need on and linked on your papers, and I want to go back to my reading."

"It's not even that late." glowered January, again under his breath, but a bit loud enough for Riley to hear.

"Look, Jan-"

"January, Mx."

"Jan. Firstly, I don't like your tone, partially because you've been a real pain in my ass for years now, and secondly, I'm really quite exhausted. Because, if you might recall, there's a little thing called "time zones" on our lovely base of Mira, and you happen to live in one that's a few hours off of mine, therefore, it is in fact late." January blinked up at the screen, startled by the commander's sharp words. They rarely snapped at anyone, and January had hoped that Riley had had at least a little respect for him. Clearly not.

"Mx-" he began, his mirth starting to be replaced by annoyance again, but Riley was on a roll.

"THIRDLY, I suspect that you are suspecting that I put together this crew of yours as a way to get some fits and giggles. And you know what? Yes, that was one of the reasons. You need to learn your place, Belverde, and this is both an easy and also entertaining way to accomplish that. We aren't in college anymore, and you aren't what you used to be. You need to accept that you made a mistake-"

"I didn't-"

"That you made a MISTAKE, January. You were demoted, you no longer have a say in Mira's scientific program, or the one on Polus, and you should be glad we're letting you have the second chance you've been begging for for four years. Take the lot we gave you or none at all. Goodnight. Commander Riley Garnsun signing off."

"Riley-" January began, reaching for the screen as though he could stop them from leaving the call, but the screen went black and there was nothing left but the screen popup that asked January to rate the call's quality every time at the end. Scowling, he absentmindedly rated it .5 stars and shut off his monitor.

The papers lay, taunting him, slightly crumpled and torn on his desk, their statistics and lists and orders which he would have been thrilled to pore over for hours in any other circumstances, simply filled him with fury.

Was it fury?

Really, what was it, why was everything so complicated all of a sudden.

January collapsed into his chair, and felt his head hit the desk. Something crunched, and he squinted then moaned as red dripped from his eyebrow onto the paper. His glasses were wrecked.

Sighing, he forced himself up and switched on the monitor's mirror function. Gingerly, he pulled his rectangular glasses off of his face and then unhooked the glass shards from his right eyebrow. Blinking to keep the blood out of his eye, he put them down on his official mission summary (what was the point of caring anymore, really) and got up to get something to wash his eye out with, then promptly tripped over his chair, than his coffee table, on his way to the washroom.

Washing out his eyebrow and getting the last of the glass out, it struck January that it wasn't rage he was feeling anymore, but hopelessness.

~one minor-mental-breakdown-in-the-bathroom later~

January was leaning forwards, one hand on his coffee table and on the hastily smoothed - out summary papers, and the other holding his taped - together glasses onto his face, and trying to read the fine print through cracked glass.

He was having a wonderful day, thanks for asking. Peachy.

Sighing, he started with the chain of command he had been assigned to. He was stuck with this now. He, like an idiot, had accepted before he had even seen the mission assignment details, so desperate he had been for a job and another chance.

"Commander in Chief: Riley Garnsun." he began again, spitting out the name with a mouthful of spite. Having history with the leader of the whole of Mira was not as good for him as he had expected, honestly. He had hoped for easier promotions and maybe some other perks, but instead he got judgment and an assignment made specifically to make fun of him.

He inhaled slowly and started to read the next name and rank. "Captain: January Belverde." That was him. He cursed his parents for naming him January. He'd liked the name at first, then when he was in school he liked it a bit less thanks to some choice words by choice students, then he'd returned to liking it a little, or at the very least accepting it.

But nooooo, it had to come and bite him in the ass like this.

"First Mate: Irene Ren September." I wonder if I can get away with calling them Ren instead.

"Qualifications: Has flown as a crewmate since 2115 and has flown as a second - in - command twice, most recently in 2120. Skilled at navigation and charting courses. Can do repairs if needed."

January sighed and looked at the next one. "Nick December. He's the..." he squinted at the text below the name and photograph, which had been smeared with red from the glasses incident.

"Communications." he finally read, then scanned over his qualifications. Apparently he had worked in marketing for a bunch of brands. How that qualified him for a communications post in space, January had no clue.

"February." January was jumping around now. "The cook. Used to be a pastry chef?" I hope he knows how to cook off of our rations too.

"March O'Rennin, weapons expert. Why do I need a gunner for this mission again?" he sighed, and flicked through the papers until he found the bulk of the summary. It was on page one, but somehow the pages had gotten shuffled in the madness of the earlier hour or so. "Assignment: to scout out potential new planets that can be used as a base-" he stopped, scowling. "So they've outgrown Polus, hm?" That stung. He had helped establish the base on Polus and had been one of the head scientists and a founding member of its crew there a few years ago. I assume that that was a detail Riley specifically selected too.

"-can be used as a base and conduct minor routine scientific research en route." ah, here was something of note and use to him. "I can use this clause here to justify..." To justify what. He couldn't exactly bring a live specimen to study with him, due to weight restrictions, and what was there to study anyways on a spaceship?

...There was one thing.

But no, he couldn't access what he needed to conduct said research anyways. He was barred from that part of Mira for an indefinite amount of time, (until Riley changes their mind, so; never) and whatever he could experiment on...

...my crew? ventured the small voice in the back of his head. January froze, momentarily considering it (he hadn't see specimen 156-18's reaction to humans before) but then shook his head and stared at his reflection in horror. Who would ever think that? He'd seen what it did to rats, and that was bad enough. Besides, he couldn't even get to 156-18. He didn't even know what they had done with it after he had been fired.

The thought of his creation in an incinerator made him feel physically sick, but Riley had always had an affinity for fire and they had hated that part of his work with a passion. Sometimes January marveled at how long he had managed to keep up his work without them cracking down on it sooner anyways.

He had still kept on working on 156-18 without legal permission, of course, but he had been cut off from Mira's scientific division ever since he had been discovered (again), which was practically torture, but he managed.

He glanced at his makeshift lab through the open door to his kitchen, and honestly? "Managed" was an overstatement. It was a mess.

So no. No scientific research he could get up to through that particular loophole.

"Still no explanation on why I would need a weapons expert though." giving up, he moved on to the next crewmate.

"August Ring. Medic." finally, someone necessary and useful. Maybe he could recruit her to help with him with whatever makeshift science he could get up to, a medic was always useful.

"June." this was the one with the stage name. Who was he, anyway? "Electrical expert." Ah, one of the maintenance people. History? "Minor television personality." he read, calling up some of June's files on his monitor. "Won some... talent show a few years ago?"

"July Garcia." he spotted her age before anything else. Nineteen. This kid was barely a legal adult, who let her onto a spaceship? "She does... what does she do?" All that was under the role category for her was "Jack-of-all-trades". So, odd jobs. Lovely.

Alicia Hall November. Ah, my navigator. Second mate." January was beginning to speed through them now, in an attempt to drown out his stream of what he could do with a sample specimen of 156-18 and leeway. It happened sometimes, he would be reminded of the good old days and then it would be all he could think about for the next weeks.

Not useful when he was about to leave on a mission that had horribly high stakes, for him at least.

"October Rattle." he noticed that she and November had applied at virtually the same time and had the same correspondence street address. Good friends? No, wait, lesbians? Either way, October was in charge of security.

"April-Rain Patsu, life support and environment systems. May Manelliot, planet/settling expert. And that's-" -he checked the next page than sighed in relief when he saw it didn't continue the list- "-all of them. Good riddance."

Dropping the paper, he flopped back into his sofa and yelled in surprise as his glasses imploded onto his face and he managed to narrowly avoid being blinded by falling glass. Carefully, he lifted what was left of them off of his face and then brushed the shards into his hand. Returning to the bathroom, he washed his face to the best of his ability and glanced at his watch, wondering if there were any stores left open where he could get a new pair.

It was one A.M. There were certainly not any good optical doctors open at the moment, at least in this time zone-

-time zones. It would be about six or seven in the central hub of Mira, which meant that any shops would likely be opening, and he could get new glasses.

Genius.

He broke into a run, only tripping over one fallen umbrella this time, and was almost out the door before he realized that he was wearing a nothing but a fluffy blue bathrobe and no shoes, and was about to forget his mask. Cursing to himself, he turned around to find some clothes, and was halfway through putting on a shirt when he realized that he had been in this bathrobe all evening.

"SHIT!" 

He had been in this bathrobe for the whole entire call with the commander oh no-

So in summary, he was definitely not ever going to live this down. Or anything that had happened since experiment 156-18 had been shut down. He was ruined, and-

Somewhere else in the building, a neighbor's obnoxiously loud wake-up alarm (who woke up this early?) blared and snapped January back into the real world. Sighing, he finished getting dressed, grabbed his mask off of its hook by the door, and carefully left his apartment. It was a nice one, penthouse, but that meant that he had a long way to go down. Luckily elevators existed so that was taken care of in a few minutes (with quite a bit of squinting to read the numbers on the buttons (why were they so small?))

One high-speed magnetic train ride, a nearly missed stop, one almost hit-and-run that he almost took part in (as the victim. in his defense the car didn't have its lights on and his vision was severely limited by the rain, smog, and lack of glasses) later, he was standing inside an optics store and soon had his new glasses. They were also the kind that worked well during spaceflights, which was an added bonus. Maybe they wouldn't fly off of his face if the power went out like that time in university.

Honestly? January wasn't one for interaction. He could handle social situations well and lead groups excellently, but he didn't really enjoy it. Usually, he wouldn't choose to stay in an enclosed space with an annoyingly friendly retail employee and their much sourer manager. But the weather outside was foul, January's hood had blown down earlier and was now damp and smelly inside from the smog. So, in a choice between the weather and interaction, he chose to pointedly ignore as many of the cashier's questions as possible, answering only the ones he absolutely had to, while staying dry. So, neither. Luckily, the cashier had fallen silent for the time being.

"So, um-" ah, speak of the devil. "-can I ask you something?"

No. "Yes." January sighed. Curse common courtesy.

"I saw your skin, and I was wondering-"

Oh no, not this again. "It's vitiligo. it's not contagious, and doesn't hurt. Any other questions?" he snapped, tilting his head slightly so he could see his reflection in the window. He was ridiculously pale in most places, but parts of his skin were a slightly darker shade with more pink to them. there was a big jagged streak of it crossing the bridge of his nose, and smaller bits along the sides of his face and down his neck.

The kid at the counter was clearly startled by January's sharp answer, but somehow they kept on talking. "It- it's really cool!" In the reflection in the window, January could see the kid smiling nervously, and his own expression shift.

"I-" he began, glancing down at one of his hands and bending the spotted fingers. "Thank you." It had been a while since anyone had mentioned his skin to him, though that was probably since he rarely went anywhere where new people could see him, and most of the people he worked with didn't seem to like talking to him anyway. And it had been even longer since someone had called it "cool".

Honestly it felt strange. Who had called it cool before again? January couldn't quite remember.

"Yeah, um." the employee trailed off, then glanced down at his register. "You're welcome!"

They stood in awkward silence for a little longer, and January was considering heading back out and home, he was getting tired, but then the accursed but rather nice retail kid asked something again.

"So, you're going to space?"

January glanced over at him in surprise, wondering how he figured that out but then realizing that it was because of the glasses. He had bought space glasses. Why was he surprised that a kid connected the two dots and figured out that he was going to space. It's too late for this.

"Yes." He paused, then added "Tomorrow."

A gasp, then a few footsteps, and the kid was standing next to and a little behind January, clearly hoping that January would turn and address them directly.

He did not.

Unfortunately, this didn't faze the kid in the slightest, and they kept right on talking.

"That's so soon! What ship?"

"The three sixty - five." January said, watching the cashier's face for any sign that they recognized the number.

"Oh! I saw that one's shuttle on my way here. Isn't it that old one that was lost for-"

January nodded, and they stopped. "Nice." January could feel the conversation going into the dangerous territory of discussing the mission, its crew, and him, so he started for the door, but stopped when he had an idea. He could sleep later.

"You said that the shuttle's docked near here?" He asked, and as the kid nodded, he added "Where?" As long as he was here, why shouldn't he make the most of it?

"Go down this road to the right until the second intersection, then turn left. Eighth shuttle dock down."

January nodded, then put his hood up, pulled on his mask, thanked the kid, and headed out. As far as interactions went, this one had gone okay. Much better than the one with Riley, anyway.

The rain had thinned into a light drizzle, but the air was still blurry and grey. That was normal, though. Mira's environment and atmosphere was ruined, and some days January wondered if he should have chosen something relating to that for his major instead of bioengineering.

Too late now.

~~


	2. round 1 || chapter 2

The eighth shuttle down. It was the oldest and most battered looking ship in the dock. Nothing like public humiliation to mess with his mind. Completely Riley's style, unfortunately.

Sighing, he walked up the wide gangway and ran the new keycard that had come with the summary through, turning the light green and opening a small door, which he slipped through, then closed. For a moment, he stood alone in the dark, a soft rattling from somewhere in the shuttle and his heartbeat and breathing being the only sounds in the room. He slipped off his mask on impulse, shoving it into his pocket. The air tasted stale, and the lights were still refusing to turn on. Something hissed, and he jumped, gasping softly, shivering from the sudden shock of cold air in his lungs, then batted at the wall, wondering if there were manual switches he could use, since there seemed to be no automatic lights, or they weren't working.

His fingers connected with a switch, and luckily it was a light switch, not one that started the engines or something. That wouldn't have ended well. It had been years since January had flown a ship that was spaceworthy, and flying one without light would have been even worse.

It was a normal shuttle, familiar, and it struck January that he hadn't been in one of these since 156-18, and this ship was, according to the papers, from around the same time. Four years. For all he knew, this ship reeked of old-fashioned technology, guessing from the exponential rate of technological development-

Something rattled again. Whirling, January stared at the rows of blue seats on the left, then on the right, but there was nothing to be seen. Shaking his head, he walked over to the controls, started the shuttle with his keycard, and waited, looking down through the window at Mira, slowly falling down below him, the skyscrapers of the main central city where he made his home disappearing below grey clouds.

In the sky above earth, Mira floated, and even higher, the spaceships were docked, and in a few minutes, January was maneuvering a ship into docking position onto the Skeld 365. It was about eight in the morning, but this high in the atmosphere, it was still dark. The ships' tiny windows in most of it didn't help much either.

It wasn't built to be pretty. It was built to work. And that was exactly what January liked about it. 

Smiling to himself, January walked through the doors and pulled out his tablet. Switching on the flashlight, he shone it around and maneuvered around the round cafeteria tables, then down into a hall, trying to call up in his memory where the electrical room was supposed to be. He'd been on ships like these before, but it had been years and he was out of practice.

However, he dimly remembered that he had to go through storage to get to electrical, so that was where he went first, tripped over a box twice (he was pretty sure it was the same box) and took a right, then a right again, tripped over some wires, and finally found the circuit breaker. Someone had shut the lights off from here, as he had suspected, but it had probably been done to conserve energy. That was protocol, right?

Pulling open the door to the circuit breaker all the way, wincing as it screeched, he quickly started to flip the switches into position, but froze as something rattled again. It honestly, what was that? Maybe a panel somewhere was loose and turbulence was ratting it? Or simply the ship's engines idling. She was an old thing, maybe something had come loose.

Shrugging, he got back to fixing the lights, shivering from occasional bouts of sudden cold (he made a mental note to go check on the life - support systems later on to see what was up with that) and soon was finished with the lights. Around him, the ship flared to life, and he stood, then peeked over the circuit breaker to the other part of electrical. The whole room was rather cluttered, with boxes and generators nearly blocking the way into the back of the room, which had plenty of exposed wires and lots of panels and switches and keypads. The same as usual.

Leaving the room, January smiled as the familiarity of the place came back to him in a flood. There was the old slightly faded paint along the walls, arrows pointing towards the different rooms to help people who hadn't memorized their way around yet, the faintly blue metal floor, everything. He was in lower engine now, the bronze and faintly blue glowing turbine set to idle, then walking along past the reactor and security-

He should check security. There wouldn't be anything to see but it still seemed like something he should do, it was the first time he was on the ship, and this would be a nice way to commemorate this new beginning.

What is this, optimism? Disgusting, make it stop.

But still, he couldn't help smiling as he looked over the screens. Empty. Nothing there, the whole ship was a blank slate. A mission on one of these old things had been what helped get his career going, back in university, and who knew, maybe this would be what got him back on track again. 

He spent about an hour exploring the ship, checking both engines for any defects, messing with the reactor to check if it was in an unstable state, checking comms, and generally just vibing.

Stepping down back into the shuttle at the end of that hour, January grimaced as the wide window in the front of the shuttle filled with light, quite a shock after the dark of the ship. But that was fine. Things were going great, actually, non-sarcastically, and it was wonderful.

Landing back on Mira, January looked around and sighed. The smog was less than ideal after the bright sunlight of above, but it was reality, and that was what it was always like. His odd bout of optimism and high spirits had passed and he was ready to go back to his apartment now. He had to pack. The mission started tomorrow morning and he needed to be ready, it would be early and thanks to time zones, it would be even earlier for him.

Lovely. Things were considerably less good, but that was to be expected he supposed.

Getting back onto the flying train, he pulled out his tablet again and started to take notes on what he had seen on the ship, but soon he was hardly paying attention to the words he was writing and instead staring out the window. The clouds were lighter, less gray and smoky, around here, in between Mira stations. Looking back, he saw the grey stain that was Mira Hub, the largest of the low - atmosphere stations, and ahead he could see the tall dark shilloette of the one in between his home station, Mira 7, and the Hub, or Mira 0.

Glancing down at his writing, which had kept on going as his mind faded from focus on the text, he wrinkled his nose in annoyance. His fingers had tapped out some annoying pattern of letters, it was gibberish, at the end of his document.

What was going on? It must be the lack of sleep. he thought, shaking his head to clear his mind. I'm tired, that's all.

Stressed.

That's all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next January lay in his bed, knowing full well that he was supposed to be fully rested by now. He had had more than enough sleep, but he couldn't force himself to sit up and get out of bed.

(Un)luckily, his alarm and phone alerts going off at full volume at the same time did the trick for him. Grumbling, he rolled over and grabbed his phone and his glasses, slipped the latter onto his face, and went over whatever had woken him up. His new alarm for the new day, which was starting far too early and loudly for his tastes by the way, some messages, and the news. 

His eyes skipped over the news, that was for later, and he started on the messages-

-hold on, is that my name?

It was his name. His name was on the news. It hadn't been on the news since...

...since 156-18.

"January Belverde, former head of scientific reaserch on Mira 0, has been brought back into active duty and will be piloting the Skeld 365, the old ship found floating in the black and abandoned after 14 years, first mission after its disappearance." January read, opening the full article. "Dr. Belverde has been a sort of recluse from society after the incident 19 years ago with his field of study, specifically specimen 156-18."

He sat up in bed, reading the article out loud as though it would make it more real. Or less real? He wasn't sure which he wanted. "Commander Riley Garnsun gave a statement concerning Dr. Belverde's new assignment, saying-" here January groaned, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and steeled himself for whatever Riley had said- "'Dr. January has sufficiently convinced us at Mira hub that he can handle a new assignment after 156-18, and we've done our best to find him a good crew for this mission'- hA!" he laughed so loud that he startled himself. Say what you will about Riley, he thought grimly, his mouth a line, but they're incredible in the PR department. 

As he skimmed through the rest of the article, which went on to explain the mission's qualifications and projected outcome and whatnot, punctuated with quotes from Riley, his confusion turned to annoyance to anger. Again.

In every quote the commander had in that article, January could find some subtle jab or something that poked at him in the wrong way.

And then he got to the messages. Naturally, one had to be from Riley. Sighing with morbid curiosity, he opened it and saw a link to the article, and the words "Look, you're famous!"

"I already saw." January dictated, and the phone complied.

Riley Garnsun - You're welcome. Came the next one, and January snorted.

"I'm really not."

Riley Garnsun - Suit yourself. And watch your tone.

Shutting off the text-to-speech function, January muttered "Whatever you say, commander." bitterly, then checked the second message. Riley had created a new group chat with eleven other people, not counting them and January, and then promptly left. No one had said anything so far, but that didn't look like it was going to stay that way soon. Glancing through the people who were in the room's names, he realized that they were his crew. Next to every person's name and icon (most were blank) there was a "vote" option.

Shrugging, January closed out of the chat and prayed that the voting function wouldn't be used. Its purpose was in case a captain fell ill or died or was otherwise unfit to run the ship and a new one would have to be chosen.

As a captain, January didn't like that function very much at all. I would like to keep my power on the ship, thank you very much. He thought, put his phone down, and started to get dressed.

Half an hour later, he had his mask and coat on, supplies packed (nothing but what was on the packing list. He had to set an example.), and a one - way ticket to the next train to Mira Hub.

~~~~~

He was walking along the road, having left the train, and still stewing about Riley and their jabs. He had reread the article again on the train ride there, gone over the many others that it had spawned, and was generally not feeling great about this situation.

One of the articles was about this "June" character, and how he had won some singing competition on planetside. For once, January had been glad that he hadn't been mentioned in a scholarly piece. Or had it been an opinion paper? He wasn't sure.

Either way, most of the articles were unpleasant towards him, and he recognized some names from the authors. Friends of Riley's, from school. Usually that would mean nothing, since journalism was supposed to hold a neutral state, but he didn't trust Riley or anyone who had been associated with them.

Overhearing a conversation from some people getting a drink of coffee, January caught his name and listened in some more.

They were talking about the names. Of course they were talking about the names. Dammit, Riley.

Sighing, he stared at the moving text on the side of some news station's building, letting the scrolling calm him down a bit, before noticing the numbers 156-18 and the name Belverde.

Spinning on his heel and knocking into his suitcase, January looked at a newspaper station and spotted Riley's annoyingly smiley face and a headline of "Commander Authorizes the Dr. Belverde of 156-18 to Command New Mission" on the Mira's Science magazine, then another snippet of conversation, then-

He grabbed his case and speedwalked, then broke into a run, out of the sidewalk. Everything was too loud and he was seeing too many pictures and words and things with his name on it and everyone was thinking and talking and expecting things of him and it was too LOUD-

-there. he was in an alley. it was quiet. this was better. He let his heart rate die down a bit.

Much better. Now he was just alone with his thoughts. Was that worse? He didn't know. What else didn't he know? He didn't know that riley was going to do next. That was obviously something to be worried about. Riley was a threat and he needed to do something about that.

January sat down on his suitcase and looked out onto the street. People's smalll personal vehicles whizzed by, and others simply walked, a few of them giving him odd looks which felt like hot rays hitting his face. He rubbed it absentmindedly, slipping his hand under his glasses and brushing the sleep out of his eyes. The shuttle docks were two turns away, but he didn't want to get up and go to them yet. It was early. He could wait until the rush hour had passed a bit.

No, this wasn't fine. And it was all Riley's fault. Riley's fault for beating him in every way in school ever since they met. Riley's fault for distracting him years ago when he had been working on 156-18 and Riley's fault for being better. It was all their fault and now January was stuck with a subpar crew and a crowd of media hounds ready to pounce on every word he said and every thing he did.

Life is hell and Riley is an archdemon. I should pay them a visit.


	3. round 1 || chapter 3

(quick tw for this chapter: stabbing, blood, death, profanity. sometimes a "frick" just doesn't fit the vibe u know)

The sun was shining and Riley's spirits were not.

Damn conscience, ruining this nice morning.

Had those quotes of theirs in the paper been too sharp? They would probably find out soon enough. January could never keep anything that pissed him off to himself.

But for the time being, they had other things to do. Missions to clear, reports to look over, speeches to write.

Honestly? Riley didn't know what January wanted this post so badly for. Sure, there was a lot of power to go along with it, but there was also a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy. Then again, Jan loved that stuff.

They got back to shuffling paper around, looking over things, signing them, before they heard footsteps. Strange. No one delivered things in person anymore, everything was sent through tubes that snaked through the building from office to office, room to room.

Am I due for a meeting? they wondered, pulling up their schedule. The only thing of note on there was the Skeld 365's takeoff, and that didn't happen for at least half an hour, didn't warrant a visit from anyone, and they haven't even planned to make a public attendance. They still wanted to see, but they would probably go incognito, to maintain a sort of "aloof and distant" persona that they had been working on lately.

So, the unexplained footsteps stayed unexplained. And they also got closer and louder, which was lovely.

Shrugging, Riley got back to their work. Whoever it was was probably a lost intern or was going to someone else.

a "Hello?" and two knocks to Riley's door jolted them back out of a paperwork - induced stupor and into the real world again.

So that person was coming to me. Their speech sounds muffled, more muffled than talking - through - a - door muffled would be.

Ah well. Might as well let the only in - person visitor they would likely get anytime soon in, to chat a bit or discuss whatever brought them here. Likely the latter.

"Come in!" Riley called, standing up and stepping around their desk before stopping right in front of it in surprise.

A figure in a white spacesuit opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind them. Their visor was set to the reflective mode, hiding their face, and they didn't speak.

"...hello?" Riley said, laughing nervously. This was suspicious. Very shifty.

The figure took a few steps forward, holding out their gloved hand. They were clearly not used to wearing a spacesuit, Riley could tell from the way they moved, all careful and slow and slightly awkward.

"I just wanted to thank you." they said, their voice altered through the helmet's speakers, gesturing with their hand. They wanted to shake. Riley shrugged, scanning their palm for hidden weapons or something, and obliged.

"No problem, I guess." they said, squinting at their visitor's blank visor, trying to see any face through its golden shine, but there was nothing. "What are you thanking me for?"

"Opportunities. The ability to get my career in space off the ground. A life outside my apartment. I could go on, thank you-"

"Look, I'm flattered." laughed Riley, watching in amusement as the stranger pumped their arm up and down enthusiastically. "But I don't personally assign people to crews most of the time, just approve them. If you wanna thank someone personally, which is very sweet by the way, go to Jaiku on floor thirty - one." They glanced down at the person's nametag and insignia, squinting to read the small symbols that denoted what ship they were manning and their rank. Whoever designed these to be so small should be fired-

"Oh, I know for a fact that you took care of this assignment personally." the visitor said, their voice changing as the scrambler switched off. Startled, Riley looked back up at their visor and gasped sharply as the gold faded and through the still slightly darkened glass peered two pale blue eyes behind new - looking rectangular glasses.

Riley stumbled as they were suddenly pulled into their visitor's body, making an audible "oof" sound as their nose hit the astronaut's shoulder, and froze as something poked between their ribs and they felt an arm covered in the bulky spacesuit push into their back. "Thank's again for the second chance." January's mouth was smiling, and his eyes were half-squinted shut as though he was truly happy and there, but there was nothing in them. They were just blank and empty blue. His arm shifted over Riley's back and-

It felt like a punch to the ribs. Riley felt their remaining sharp breath fall out of them, and stumbled back from a sharp push from January's right arm, as he finally let go of the handshake. Something warm was on Riley's side, and as they landed hard against their desk, January stepped back, his face disappearing behind his visor again and gingerly holding a-

-oh fuck that was a bloody knife what-

-the warm liquid was running down Riley's side now, breathing hurt but they weren't getting enough air-

-January dropped the knife to the floor, casually wiping off the red smudging on his left hand's glove's palm on Riley's coat that hung near the door.

"Don't be too sad." he said, the voice scrambler on again. "Maybe they'll name a ship after you. It would be nice for a ship to be named something other than "Skeld" then a number.

Riley stared up at January, breathing hard, before doubling over and coughing, choking on their own blood as they half - screamed from the sudden bolts of pain shooting between their ribs, dimly seeing their formerly silver-white carpet turn red under them, gasping for breath between sobs-

-fuck they were crying. why were they crying? dimly, they heard January walk out and close the door behind him with a click of a lock.

I can't die, this isn't how it was supposed to go, today was supposed to go well, I was going to wear civilian clothes and go for a walk, take a break-

"yOU GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLE!" they screamed, half-hoping that they would be able to summon help or make January collapse, either one would be great, out of pure rage alone, but no one came. They suddenly regretted choosing one of the emptiest floors in the building for their office, no matter how quiet it was. They were coughing up blood again, their voice cracking as they cried out for help, the ground in front of them was spinning, their vision was going dark on the edges-

shaking, they dragged themselves one-armed, their other hand applying weak pressure to their side, up to half - lean on their desk, shaking and crying as they swiped for their phone and dialed the emergency number for this floor with shaky hands.

By some miracle, they managed to put the numbers in right, and whoever it was at the other end picked up right away-

-dizzy. Oh God Riley was going to be sick -

"Commander? Commander, why are you calling here. Please state the emergency-" the kid at the end of the line sounded scared.

"Ah, bless caller I.D." laughed Riley through coughs. "Listen, I need help-"

"What happened specifically, we need to know so we know who to send-"

"a doctor. I- God, I've been stabbed." Riley said, shaking again, nausea and pain making their whole body shake. "Ah fuck. Ow. Please hurry I'd rather not pass out on my desk-"

"Right, right, where have you been stabbed? We're sending someone right now by the way we just kinda have to ask you these sorry-" the kid was rambling again but Riley didn't even care.

"on my right side- ahHHH ow ow shhhii-" coughing again. blood was all over their desk and papers, they dimly wondered if that would render contracts invalid as they slowly started to slip back down onto the floor and out of consciousness.

Nonono I can't pass out I need to chase January, make sure he doesn't make it off Mira-

-but despite their best efforts, Riley slipped into darkness and onto the warm wet carpet.


	4. round 1 || chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mass update time, i forgot that i had this on ao3 for a sec so i'm posting all the new chapters at once so that this version is at the same spot as the one on wattpad

"So _that's_ our ship."

July Garcia was standing next to her older brother June, and she personally disagreed with the disappointment in his tone.

"Funny - looking." he continued. "Looks ancient."

"I like it." July ventured, giving her brother the side-eye. "What, does it need more color? Shine? That certain _je ne sais quoi_?"

"Yes to all of those. But also... look at it!" he cried, gesturing at it vaguely. "Do you think it'll stay in one piece in space?"

"It stayed in one piece for like,,, a decade in space, abandoned." July pointed out.

"That just makes it WORSE!"

July snorted, pulled her bag higher over her shoulder, and started walking ahead on her own. "If you're going to be a _coward_ I guess I'll just go alone!" she called, looking over her shoulder and giving June the most sickening grin she could muster. He stared at her in mock shock for a moment, openmouthed, then tilted his suitcase onto its wheels and sprinted after her, shaking his head in amusement.

"I'm no coward. I'm just rational." He said, falling into step next to her and together, they walked over to the old ship that would be their new home for the next few months, easily. Probably longer.

~~~~~][~~~~~

The ship _did_ need more color. Frankly, it needed more of everything. June couldn't see any exposed wiring on the outside, which was good, but the bar _couldn't_ be that low. C'mon now.

More space, more pizazz, more... generally more. It was completely barebones, and that was just the shuttle.

"It's just the shuttle!" he laughed out loud, making July jump. "Julie, it's just the shuttle. For all we know, the ship's a hundred times better than this!"

"See!" she said, looking at him smugly. "I knew you'd come to eventually!"

"Hush." he laughed, then jogged forward to the gangway. A few others were standing there too, some in suits, two of them holding theirs still - folded in their arms, and the rest still in common clothes. June counted seven people already there, nine once he and Julie (which was what July liked being called. She said it sounded like more of a real name. He didn't blame her, he liked June because it was catchy, but July was not much of a name for anyone) joined them.

One of the people who was already in his suit was in red. He was tall, and had his helmet under his arm, and looked a bit old to be going into a space. He was likely some veteran. He had a beard, fluffy and grey, cut short enough to fit in his helmet, but still long enough to make him look like he was some old grizzled space Santa Claus.

He looked over the Garcia siblings as they walked up, and June shifted nervously. He liked to think he passed, but there was always the nagging thoughts in the back of his head saying otherwise.

"None of you happens to be the captain, yes?" he asked, his voice rough. "He's late."

 _Oh good, I passed there._ June thought, doing a little mental celebration. "No, sorry. I'm the electrician."

"hmph." grunted Red Suit, shaking his head. "Back in my day, the captain was the first on board."

"He should be here soon. Maybe we're just early, who knows!" chimed in the person in cyan. They had their helmet off too, but it was hanging down their back. on the little straps from the shoulders that it was attached to, to keep it there. "I'm August, she/her, your medic!"

"June, he/him." said June, smiling at the mention of pronouns (it was nice to see in normal conversation. sue him.), and shaking August's hand. "Or Juneau. I answer to either."

Julie stepped forward too, introducing herself and holding out her hand for August to shake, which she did, nodding at the two.

"Are you two siblings?" she asked, smiling up, her small rounded frame in stark contrast with the sudden appearance of the tall long shape of the next person. She wasn't wearing her suit yet, but her whole getup was so green that it wasn't too much of a stretch that she would wear the lime suit.

"Probably." said the tall newcomer. "March O'Rennin, she/her." she looked over at July and June. "I like your hair."

July patted it, smiling slightly. Were rainbow bangs a bit overboard? Probably. But he and Julie had gone to get their hair done the night before as a celebration of their first real job, ever, so he had an excuse.

~~~~~][~~~~~

March looked over the two siblings, wondering whether they would need to be carried. They looked green, if you pardoned the expression. Though their hair was nice, the boy had a lovely rainbow in the front and the girl had half of it dyed bright electric purple. Somehow, it matched her getup.

Well, now that they were here, that left three people missing. Two more crew members, from what she got from the rest of the people here, the geologist and the life support people, and most notably, the captain.

March had hoped to speak to the captain before they set off, that's why she had showed up to the launch site early, but that had backfired. Now most of the crew knew her, but not the captain, which was the opposite of what she was going for. Lovely.

What kind of captain is late for his own mission? she wondered, looking at her watch. there were technically two minutes before it officially was time to board, but that was cutting it awfully close anyway.

"We should get into our suits, to be ready!" August was saying, and immediately a panting voice shouted "Dibs on green!" startling March. _She_ had wanted the light green. Impulsively, she shouted back "Only if you get to it first!" and sprinted to the room next to the shuttle where a nervous and startled-looking kid stood by a counter and was about to say something when March skidded into a halt, leaned on the counter, and said "the lime suit please," catching her breath.

"I- " the kid began to ask what was going on, then saw the second person who had called for green sprint in and sighed. "fine." they reached back and pulled down the bright green one, passing it to March, and nodded towards one of the doors in the back. "change in there." March took it, then glanced over her shoulder smugly, sticking out her tongue at the person who entered right after her.

~~~~~][~~~~~ 

May had just come here to get eir preferred color of spacesuit. What was up with that blonde chick with the lime suit? Weird.

Ee shrugged, asked the kid for the green suit, took it, it was darker than the one the other girl had taken, and went to change as well.

Shortly after, there ee was. Standing in front of the changing room's mirror, ee looked emself over and nodded in satisfaction. the green set off eir dark skin nicely. what it needed was a little bit of something else, though. as ee left the suit warehouse, ee glared at the blonde chick (who had sounded Irish when she had shouted back at May). she was talking with the short medic in cyan. August? August. These month-themed names were getting stranger and stranger by the minute.

Ee stopped by the couple with the orange and black suits, who were talking to each other softly. May missed being in love sometimes, but ee didn't let it get em down. Ee had so many other things to do.

"I think I see the captain coming." Ee said, suddenly, spotting a figure in a white suit and helmet walking briskly towards the small group. "I would get into the suits quickly if I were you."

The one holding the orange suit startled, then glanced up, spotted the white suited figure approaching, thanked May with a smile, and took her partner (girlfriend? fiancé? wife? all may knew is that they were together somehow, they had mentioned it in the group chat that the commander had set up for them) by the hand and the two hurried into the Suit Shack(tm) to change.

That left May standing and waiting for eir very late captain, along with the man in red (December. Very tall and old), the cyan medic, and the rest that weren't in the shack, changing.

May prided emself on being good at reading people. It was eir thing. Ee was the quiet one, the strange scientist who licked rocks and no one noticed beyond looking over em and saying "why is ee licking that rock" to which ee would not answer out loud, simply lick the rock more slowly-

Anyway. Ee was good at reading people and going unnoticed. Which meant that the fact that eir entrance to this crew was quite noticeable rubbed em a bit the wrong way. But, ee could still read people. Hopefully everyone would forget soon.

~~~~~][~~~~~ 

September speed-walked through the back alley where they had hopped off of their ride (the driver had said that he had known a short cut. it was certainly shorter, and went through some shifty-looking and cutthroat neighborhoods, but they didn't care as long as they got there on time) and skidded to a stop behind the shuttle. Ducking under and away from the engines in case they started all of a sudden, they jogged under the belly of the small ratty ship and stood in front of it, behind the small crowd of people waiting for someone.

They hurried over, ducking between two people, muttering a "sorry" to the taller one in red who grunted with annoyance, and stopped right in time to see the captain arrive.

Well. Good thing I'm not the latest, at least. they thought, sighing slightly in relief. They stepped forward, holding out their right hand to shake, and said to start things off well, "Hello!"

The figure in white looked curiously at their outstretched hand, chuckled softly, then took off his helmet and right glove. "You're the first lieutenant, I assume?"

"Yes! September." They shook. September flinched slightly, from a sharp shock of something that felt like cold electricity, then dropped their hand back to their side. It itched.

"Oh, my apologies." the captain said, glancing down at his own hand. "Static. Must be from the suit."

"It's nothing!" September chirped, absentmindedly rubbing their hand, then turned to the little building where they knew the suits were kept. "I should change." They suddenly felt strange, as though they were being burned by miniature rays of sunlight focused onto spots on their back, and they quickly said something about how they would leave the captain to meet the rest of the crew, then ran off to the suit rooms.

The only one left was brown. _Damn it, I wanted purple._ they grumbled internally, but took the suit and the situation in stride. It matched their hair.

~~~~~][~~~~~ 

Oh god. Oh _no_. What had he _done_?

_I need to get off of this station._


	5. round 2 || chapter 1

Ooh, the captain was _cute_.

_No, August, focus. This is an important mission, not a date._

He had frozen in place, his expression difficult to read (though that wasn't new to her. expressions were hard), staring into space for a moment, before shaking his head and looking over the crew. "there's only eight of you here." he said, frowning. "Nine, counting the first lieutenant."

"The-" _who was talking? Oh, wait, that was her. why was she talking?_ "They're getting into their suits."

"Right. Well, the rest of us can board while we wait." the captain said briskly, snapping his fingers and clearing his tablet through into the ship, opening the doors and standing aside.

"She looks old, but I can assure you she's safe." he said, spotting the person in yellow (his tag had the number six on it) who had just come out of the suit area and who was making a skeptical face at the shuttle, who's doors had stuck slightly as they opened. "I flew her yesterday up to the main ship and back, to test a few things and check whether everything was in order."

"Was it?" asked the person who had shaken the captain's hand first, walking over suited up in brown and with their helmet hanging behind their head.

Captain Belverde scowled at them, before quickly shifting his expression to one of stoic boredom. "The lights needed fixing, some fuzes had blown or something. I'll have the electrician on board take a look at them once we're in the air to ensure it won't happen again."

The group waited a bit longer, some of them filing into the shuttle, but most staying out in the sun for as long as they could before heading into space for the next few months.

A small crowd was gathering, August noticed, and a little flame of excitement flickered up in her, almost, and she waved a little at it when she spotted her little brothers bouncing around. She had said goodbye earlier that day, but evidently they had slipped away from school to get one last look at her.

The little candle of happiness spluttered out and August felt cold. Will they get in trouble for that? she wondered, fidgeting. I hope Aunt Angela will take care of them and mom well enough...

"...and I can't wait to study the new plants on whatever planet we find, and-" August jumped as she realized that someone was talking to her. "-oh, sorry, I talk to myself. I was recording this for my audio journal and I didn't know that I was being loud sorry-"

"It's fine." laughed August, looking over to the person who was speaking. They had dark hair, grown long, pulled into a low ponytail, and dark eyes. _Ooh,_ they're _cute too._

"I'm April-Rain!" they said, flapping their hands a little in excitement and looking around. "I'm so excited for this, everything is so new in space and on new planets!"

"It's great, isn't it?" laughed August, their high bouncing spirits lifting her a bit out of her rut. "What are you going to be doing on the ship? I don't think I introduced myself. I'm August, she/her, the medic."

"I'm the reactor specialist!" April-Rain said. "they/them."

"I love your name!" August said, and April-Rain's face lit up.

"Thank you! I chose it myself."

"It's a very good name." August repeated, and the two fell into stride on their way to the ship's shuttle.

~~~~~][~~~~~ 

February had gotten here early, and was the first into the shuttle when the captain opened the doors. Usually, he would pay attention to faces (he liked faces. they were always so interesting) but right now, even the walls of the old rugged shuttle were better than looking at faces today. Too many of them reminded him of _her_.

So, the walls it was.

Dimly, he overheard the rest of the people walk into the shuttle, some talking amongst themselves and some simply quiet, but the doors didn't close. Turning towards the small crowd despite his inner protests, his curiosity overriding his caution, he spotted two last people walking in, both of their helmets off (the shorter one was trying to figure out how to hook it onto her shoulders, the taller one had it already attached and was trying to explain how to the shorter one).

February froze and felt his face warm. _Oh no._

The new one (in yellow) was about the same height as February, (probably a little shorter) had the softest looking rainbow hair, and was laughing softly to himself as he helped the short one in blue fix her helmet. She was cute too, with fluffy hair dyed lavender on one side, but _oh god_ look _at him._

 _Hush._ February told his brain. _He might not even be into guys._

 _His hair. Is_ rainbow _. He's definitely gay._

February shook his head quickly, then glanced over at the front of the ship, trying to look anywhere but there.

"Right, we're running a little late." the captain was saying (what had his name been? January? yeah, that was it.) "But as long as we make good time right now on our way to the main ship, we should do fine."

 _It's no one's fault but yours we're late._ February thought, annoyed, but didn't say anything. _Evidently, a pretty face didn't mean he was going to be nice. That was to be expected._

_See? With my luck, the pretty rainbow hair guy is an asshole!_

A quickly run-through explanation of what was about to happen later, February was sitting down into a seat in front of the shuttle, strapping in, and snapping his helmet on, watching the little displays light up on his visor. Comms, vitals stats, and an alert symbol that was currently not activated or lit, the usual.

"June, I still don't see your insistence that we forgot something. We forgot nothing." someone was saying, and February jumped as Lavender Hair sat down two seats away from him. She had managed to put her helmet on properly, somehow, and was talking to Rainbow Hair, who sat down next to February.

And of course, February blue - screened. Dimly, he saw Rainbow wave at him, and numbly, he waved back, wondering what he had done to deserve this?

~~~~~][~~~~~

February looked as though he was going to implode, poor guy. April-Rain didn't really blame him, honestly, that one in yellow with the hair (June? April-Rain thought they had heard June) was a pretty one, even they could admit it, even though they weren't attracted to guys.

But, February needed to breathe, clearly, so April-Rain sat down on his other side and said "Hello!"

He jumped, blinking, dropping his hand down from where it had been waving absentmindedly to his leg. "Oh. Hi, April-Rain!"

"OOH, that's a great name-" interjected the one with the split hair color, then added "-I'm July. I like it when people say it like "Julie" though, it sounds better-"

She cut off, since the captain stood and started to talk. June(?) leaned over towards them and February, whispering his name (it _was_ June!) quickly then turning to listen to the captain.

~~~~~][~~~~~

It was the same speech as usual, with a few words changed or omitted, but the same general all-around meaning, so Nicholas decided that now was a good time to tune out this young captain who clearly thought he knew more than _he_ did and look around for threats. There always was one, no matter how minuscule it seemed to the rest of the crew, and there always was a way to fix it and prevent it if it was found in time.

Over the years, he had managed to realize that he was really the only one who cared. but that was fine. He didn't mind carrying the whole ship and crew's fate on his shoulders. He liked it. Nothing ever went wrong when he was watching.

The shuttle looked old, run-down, and generally shifty, but it was holding together.

_For now._

Captain Belverde had finished his speech, and settled down in one of the two chairs in the front of the ship, nodding at the first lieutenant, who sat down in the second, announced that they were about to take off (no shit Sherlock) and that they should put their seat belts on (Nicholas had already done that. Obviously.) and brace for takeoff.

The takeoff came faster than Nicholas had expected, in 5 seconds instead of the usual 10, and he froze in a sudden bout of nervousness. Was this going to be what sent them crashing down to the ground already?

But the shuttle stayed afloat and shot into the sky, tilting from side to side in it's usual rocking dance through the atmosphere, and soon enough they were flying up to the main ship, the sky dark around them, and docking with a smooth click. Nicholas noted that it had been the first mate who had done the landing, while the captain watched. Was this a new thing the younger commanders were trying to implement? or was this captain simply incompetent?

~~~~~][~~~~~

Nova settled down at the end of the left row of seats, watching as the rest of the crew settled down on their own. Her fiancé, Octy, was sitting next to her, holding her hand, and humming some quiet song to herself.

The two of them had a plan. They would get married once they came back from this mission, with some time after to re-adjust to planet life and prepare, then take a break from space travel for a honeymoon. Octy had suggested visiting France, walking and driving and biking around the country, and since Nova had no real idea what was another place to go for a honeymoon, that sounded good to her.

This mission would take about a year, which was relatively tame as missions to space went, and they had both agreed that it would be fun. They would grow closer! Yes!

"The captain's nervous." Octy said, into the communications headset in her helmet. "He can't hear us, by the way, I set up a private channel for the two of us. It's 3298."

Nova switched to it, and smiling, said "thanks."

"Of course." Octy said, then repeated "The captain's nervous. Something's happened to him earlier."

"Any idea what?"

"You're more likely to figure it out from the two of us, since you're in the actual chain of command here."

"True." Nova couldn't miss the little hint of pride in Octy's voice when she talked about how Nova had gotten a high rank.. She was pretty sure that she had cheered louder than Nova herself when the call came in saying that Nova had gotten second mate. "Should I ask him later?"

"Best not to do so outright." Octy said, tilting her head to the side. "He doesn't seem like the warmest person."

"Alright then." Nova tried to find something funny to call their unofficial mission, flipping through several ideas before saying "Operation Melt The Snowbank is a go, then!"

~~~~~][~~~~~

Octy's wife - to - be was with Octy, on a ship, in space, and she was laughing. What on earth could be better.

 _Nothing_ , that was what.

Except for getting married to the said wife - to - be on halloween. That would probably be even better.

This mission would be a slightly stressful precursor to the two of them settling down on earth for a bit, then they'd probably get right back to space travel, which was honestly the Ideal Situation Here.

They all flew, the ship rocking a little, for a few minutes longer, and soon docked to the main ship.

The Skeld 365. What a ship. Old, run-down, probably haunted. In summary, the ideal ship for October Rattle, local horror enthusiast.

The shuttle had docked on top of the Skeld, the thrusters still on to reduce its weight on top of the bigger ship, and a staircase lowered into a hatch that opened right under it. They walked down into a cafeteria, and Octy grinned as she spotted the slightly dim lighting, the funny shadows on the walls, the loud noises as the lights turned on-

-all lovely, slightly creepy, and just the perfect amount _off_.

Was she getting far too worked up about this? Probably. But interesting environments and liminal spaces were always something she liked a lot.

"Right. Our mission objective is to scout out for new planets that could sustain a research base, similar to polus. We have readings from Polus itself saying that a planet in its own solar system is likely to be a good candidate for this, so that will be our first stop." Captain January was repeating himself, she was pretty sure. But, Octy hadn't been listening the first time, so she was fine with this. "It's another cold planet, with a slightly farther orbit than Polus, and shouldn't pose much trouble in settling. No threatening wildlife of note. We're stocked up for a year of travel, in the case that Polus II does not work out and we would have to explore to further planetary systems."

"I was told we would be away for a year regardless." Interjected the man in red.

"Right." the captain said, tensing in slight annoyance. "If Polus II does turn out to be a good place to settle, we'll stay there for most of the remainder of the year to set up properly, then leave with enough supplies to make it back to Mira."

Red- (December? Octy saw a number 12 on his tag, and since hers was 10, Nova's was 11, and the captain January's was 1, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume the one named December was number 12.) -Red nodded. He was a veteran, if Octy remembered properly, and he didn't seem to trust the captain. I

"Is it just a superiority he feels from his age, do you think?" she whispered into the private channel, to Nova.

"Hm?" she said, and Octy mentally kicked herself. She would always forget that other people usually needed context for her questions- "Oh, you mean about December. Maybe?" -oh. But Nova was always so good at figuring out what Octy meant. "I saw him looking around the shuttle, as though he were looking for flaws or dangers, maybe he's simply paranoid."

"that's probably it." Octy said, looking over at December again. "I wonder why?"


	6. round 2 || chapter 2

March watched as most of the crew spread out to do their jobs, starting to walk down towards weapons, but then noticed something that seemed out - of - the - ordinary to her.

Where was the captain going? He should have been heading to the bridge, but he was headed down, into... storage?

 _Storage. Or whatever rooms connect to it._ she thought. _Weird. But! that means that he'll be alone and I can talk to him! Finally!_

She broke into a quiet speedwalk to keep up, and spotted him turn the corner right, into the hall leading either to shields or-

 _comms. He's gone into comms- oh._ she paused, seeing that he wasn't alone in there, and huffing in annoyance. The big red guy was there too.

She froze, realizing her situation.

_If I go and reveal myself now, after this hesitation, it'll look as though as I was following him._

_...Which I was, but that's not the point here._

_The point is, I won't be able to talk to him soon like I hoped. Do I wait?_

_If I wait and am caught, he won't trust me. That's the actual opposite of what I was going for here._

_But if I wait and I'm_ not _caught..._

_...I would have valuable information, and would have kept the trust of the captain. Two birds with one stone._

She stayed, and she knew a good place to hide. Quickly, she tiptoed past the comms room and into shields, then took a sharp turn into a little alcove over a vent where the prime shields thingy was stuck to the wall. If she took her helmet off and put her ear to the wall, she could hear the conversation from the other room.

"...take care of this." the captain was saying, his tone sharp. "I need to receive some official messages from Mira." a faint tapping of screens leaked through the wall. "I'll let you return to your post soon, I just need to take care of this."

"with all due respect, captain-" the red guy began, but was cut off by January.

"It's no trouble for me. I simply need to tie up some loose ends for myself that I didn't get to before I left." The words themselves were neutral and friendly, but the tone was hard. There was no arguing here. March heard the one in red walk out, and she shrank into her corner, waiting for him to pass.

She slipped out of shields, then started to walk as softly as she could back over to comms. As she peeked into the room from around the door, she spotted what looked like a communication history with mission control wink out for a moment, then re-appear, but with a message missing.

She didn't dare breathe.

Something was going wrong, the captain was trying to salvage the situation, clearly. Maybe she could help, and she was about to offer when she saw the tense arch of his shoulders and the sharp movement of his hands over the keys, and she instinctively knew that those were never good signs. He would not respond well to anyone offering to help.

He was clearly about to get a breakthrough when-

-the screen went gray with static and he froze, hands half-finished typing, and cursed under his breath. He reached for the recalibration knobs, and turning them, the static disappeared and comms was back up-

-mostly. There was a big blaring alert on the external comms screen, stating that it was not connected to base or anywhere else other than the ship itself.

_Not good. ...Right? That's not good, it doesn't look good at least, but at least it wasn't a full outage-_

-the lights went out.

_-fuck._

March could hear the captain curse under his breath, then turn and hurry towards the door of the room. Panicking, she jumped back away from the opening, slamming into the opposite hall wall with a thud and a clang.

The footsteps stopped, and March held her breath, her helmet's dim automatic flashlight switching on and illuminating Captain January Belverde, standing a few feet away, with his light suddenly on too.

January stumbled back with a sharp yell, his hand going for the gun in his belt for a moment before he seemed to register who it was in front of him.

March might have screamed too. Shut up. You can't prove anything.

January was clutching his chest with his free hand, breathing hard, but he slowly dropped it and the gun hand as he realized that it was just March.

"Ah. You. I don't know your name but I assume you got on here legally."

"I'm-"

"Of course, I know it's a month of the year." January continued. "At least part of it. That narrows it down some."

"March." March said, annoyed. "It's March O'Rennin."

"Ah. Yes. The weapons one. Irish?"

March nodded.

"Nice."

They stood in silence, as the lights stayed dark, and March finally ventured "so should we go fix that or...?"

"Right. Probably."

They walked off in silence for a bit, March dimly hearing January answer questions in the comms channel.

"-I've got the lights, give me a second-" someone was saying, and March spotted the voice ID to be June. She heard January's footsteps falter and stumble, and he cursed again. She turned, spotting him regaining his footing after apparently tripping over a box? Oh, so they were in storage.

"You alright?"

"Fine, fine. Fucking _boxes_."

March nodded. "Boxes."

"-Right, lights. I'm in electric, give me a moment-" June was saying over comms. he was singing a little to himself, some repetitive poor tune, "flipping some switches, I'm flipping those switches, making them all green- _aAAH_!"

"JUNE!" that was July, according to voice ID. She sounded terrified-

"Garcia, are you all right?" January has snapped out of whatever trance of informality he had gotten into, and was back to business. "Garica, answer me-"

"I-"

"Not you, July."

"Right, sorry-"

"I'm fine, Captain." Audible sighs of relief from the whole chat.

"June!" July was clearly relieved, a small crack breaking her voice. "June, what happened, you scared me-"

"I'm fine. I'm alright. A broken wire shocked me, that's all." The poor kid sounded shaken too. "The outage has us all on edge. Speaking of-" he paused, and suddenly with the muffled _bang_ of all the lights going on at once, the ship was lit again.

"Right." said the captain, into comms, the echo of him talking into her helmet and also being right next to March throwing her off for a moment. Why hadn't she noticed that earlier? Must have been too much other stuff on her mind.

"Right." repeated January. Collecting his thoughts, maybe? "Everyone back to your posts and tasks, then. Captain Belverde signing off." And his audio cut off with a _click_.

"Captain." March began, looking over at the white-suited man walking next to her. "I wanted to talk to you,"

"That's why you followed me?" He asked, his tone sharp again. It was a startling shift in tone from what he had been like earlier, chatty and awkward in small talk.

"I didn't-" she began, and frowned as he snorted. "I didn't. I wanted to talk to you at first, and I saw you going to comms, so I went too, but then saw you were busy." _No lie so far, technically._ "So, I started to go up to weapons the long way around, but the lights went out so I tried to go back towards electric, and ran into you." _Now here's a slightly larger percentage of lie._

"Hm. So you did follow me." the captain grunted, staying in silence for a bit then sighed. "Right, well, go on."

"What?" March said, then quickly added "Sir?"

"You wanted to speak to me?" They were walking along past electric, and March spotted June repairing some wires with a fervor. The culprits of their scare earlier, most likely.

"Oh, right. I did want to talk to you, yes." The thing was, March had no real clue what she wanted to talk to January about. "I-" she pulled herself together. "I wanted to make sure that you trust me."

"That I-" January's voice rose in... amusement? "Do I trust you? Do I- hA!" he burst out laughing, bending over and resting his hands on his knees. "No, of _course_ not!"

"Wh-" March froze. This was _not_ the answer she had been expecting.

"Don't take it personally." He said, his voice still slightly choked from laughter. "I, to be frank, rarely trust anyone. And I don't know you."

"I could change that!" March said, trying to shove down her disappointment and hurt from the captain's reaction. "I want to be trustworthy, and I get that I probably am not right now, but I promise I can show you what I can do and be trusted with."

January was silent for a bit, his head tilted a bit and his foot tapping the floor as he stood still in the center of the hall. "All right." he finally said.

"You'll trust me?" March's spirits leapt, and she smiled under her mask.

"No."

She slumped. "Oh-"

"I'll give you a chance. I'll let you show me I can trust you, and then I _might_."

March smiled again. "I won't let you down, captain!" she said, saluting.

"I-" he began, then sighed. "Right. We're nearing the asteroids, I think. Go to your post."

"Yes sir!" she said, then ran off past him, back through storage, and into her place in the gunner's chair. Her hands fell onto the two joysticks, the screen in front of her lit up into it's translucent red shine, and the first asteroid fell to pieces.


	7. round 2 || chapter 3

//tw: gore, death, nausea   
  
The last of the wires were finally connected, and as June pulled the last of the rubber covering over the live exposed wire the best he could, careful to avoid shocking himself again, (earlier he had brushed against a live wire and it had shocked him, making him scream and scare everyone on the ship), he glanced out the door. The captain and the tall green one, March, were walking by, and he nodded slightly at them. They didn't notice.

A minute or so later of double-checking the electric breaker box to make sure it wouldn't go mad on them again, he was out of the room and tapping out a message to Julie, asking her to maybe come to see him in storage?

She responded right away, with a "yes!" and then right after a "race you!"

"Oh, you are _on_!" he laughed at the screen, as though she would hear him, and broke into a sprint, climbing halfway up the stack of boxes before he saw her sprint in from the hallway connecting to the cafeteria, and swear at him as she jumped up the side of the boxes as well.

June leapt up the final crate, slapping the center of the topmost one with his hand moments before Julie did, her gloved hand slamming down on his and making him yell in mock agony.

"Beat.. you." he said, catching his breath, laughing quietly, as Julie cursed again under her breath.

"No fair. You were in electrical and I was all the way by the trash chute in cafeteria."

"You started the race, Julie."

"Don't care. You agreed!"

"So?" June laughed, shifting himself so he sat on the top box, looking around the room.

"So, you're an enabler." Julie said, matter - of - factly. "Besides, you're older. You have to be the smart one."

"That I do." sighed June, standing on the box, which wobbled a bit, then stretching to see if he could reach the roof. He could! The boots of his suit gave him extra height, they had little heels.

"Hey June-"

"Yeah?" he asked, grinning as he patted the ceiling.

"You think mom and dad know where we are?"

He stopped short, his shoulders stiffening and he nearly lost his balance. "..why do you ask?" he ventured, panic starting to set in. _Oh no, does she want to go back to them? Did I drag her onto this ship?_ He felt cold.

"I wonder what they'll think when they figure out that we actually got into space without their help, that's all," Julie said, smiling wickedly, her face slightly distorted through the curved glass of her helmet.

"Oh, they'll be livid, I bet." June laughed nervously, sitting back down next to her. "Imagine. The useless gay one and..." he trailed off, trying to find a title for Julie, but she broke in-

"and the horrible ungrateful brat of a sister..."

"..got on a rocket and are going to find new planets." he finished, smiling to himself again.

"Man, I wish I could see their faces when they connect the two dots."

"They won't connect shit."

"Too far in denial?"

"Too far in denial."

They sat in silence for a bit, June running through his tasks on his tablet, Julie looking at his and hers back and forth, pointing out where their tasks overlapped and they could go together, before heavy footsteps came stomping down the hall and stopped at the entrance to storage.

The red guy, December, stood looking up at them. The glare of the lights on his helmet visor stopped them from seeing his face and how annoyed he probably was, but his general body language was enough.

" _What_ are you doing?" he shouted up at the siblings, and they stared back in awkward silence. It was pretty obvious, not gonna lie.

"Uh-" June began, glancing over at July nervously. She had slipped down behind the top crate and was trying to hide. _Smart little bastard._

"Those aren't technically ours you know." he continued. "They belong to the state, just like the ship, your suits, your food-" Julie snickered from behind the box, probably at the "your suits" bit, then cut short as December continued "-and I can see you behind there, little girl."

"Aww." she said, pulling herself back up onto the box again. "Sorry Santa, am I still on the nice list after this?"

"What..." December began, and June choked back a laugh.

"Julie, that's not ni- ah!" He yelped again and stumbled a little as Julie grabbed his arm and started to tumble down the side of the hill of crates and boxes.

"Get _back_ here-" began December, but June and Julie were already sprinting past him and into shields.

"You'll do what?" Julie called back, then made a sharp turn and tucked herself into the little alcove in the corner of shields, over the vent, dragging June in with her. The two of them stood frozen for a few seconds, and December ran past them and up the hall, calling out something about the captain hearing about this.

A few beats of silence, then finally Julie broke it by laughing again. "Did you see his _face_?"

"Julie, that was mean." June said, trying to stifle laugher himself.

"Did you, though?"

"No, his helmet had glare in it. I couldn't see anything, Julie-"

"His reaction was enough!" Julie had doubled over in giggles and was sitting on the vent. "Ah! Look, this one's got air coming through it!" she called, patting the grate next to her.

"That's usually how vents work, Julie. They're for air. What did you think they were for?"

"Well, maybe for climbing through, like super - spies!"

" _No_ , Julie."

"Why not?"

"They're too small. We won't fit." June began. "Look, move over, let me show you."

"You're actually going to shove your foot in a vent to prove a point?" Julie let June move her over, off of the vent.

"Yeah," said June, prying up the vent's grate and balancing it against the wall. The vent went straight down for a [little bit] few feet, then made a 90-degree turn and went off towards navigation, he guessed, from the angle.

"Oh my God you're actually going to do it-" laughed Julie, leaning against the wall and watching June sit down and dangle his legs into the vent. Shifting his weight to his arms, he went in as far as he could but by the time he was up to his hips, it was too small.

"See?" he grunted, kicking around in it and listening to the loud echo. "Too small."

"Maybe for you!"

"We're the same size, Julie." he said, sighing, then looked up at her face. She was leaning over him, grinning like an idiot. "Help me out, would you?"

"Nah," she said, stepping back. "I think I'll let the super - spy in the vents find you."

"There's no one in the vents, Julie."

"You are!"

"I don't count, I'm only halfway." he sighed. "Seriously, Julie, I'm stuck, could you-"

"Oh!" she said, walking around him to the best of her ability. " _You're_ the super - spy in the vents!"

" _No_ , Julie."

"You're boring." she pouted, but grabbed him by the arms and, bracing one foot against the wall, started to drag him out. "aaAAAAH got you- oof!" she cried out, and they both fell back onto the floor.

"...imagine if someone just.... walked in on this." said June after a bit of the two of them just lying around in silence. "I'm halfway in the vent, and we're both not doing anything useful."

"We'd get booted for sure." she said, then got up, letting June's head fall to the ground with a thud. "Have fun fixing that vent!" she called as she started to walk away.

"Hey, no fair!"

"You broke it!"

"You're the enabler here!" June argued, standing up next to it. "Besides, you're the maintenance kid! This is your _job_!"

"aaAAAGH fine." Julie groaned, turned around, and got to fixing the vent. "Look, it's not even broken. It even looks like it's designed to open easily." It clicked back into its spot, and June dusted off his legs, stood, and glanced at his tablet.

"We've both got something in O2, right?"

"Yep." Julie affirmed, then glanced up at June, stood, and- "Race you to O2!"

"nO!" he yelled, then sprinted after her.

They slammed into the wall of O2 at the exact same moment, and June heard something rattle behind the panel where the wires were. He winced. There was another thing to fix.

"Right," he said, catching his breath for the third time in ten minutes. What kind of day was this? "off to work we go."

"Right!" chirped Julie, and hurried off to clean the filter, and June got to the wires they had just broken. He had been supposed to check them anyway.

~~~~~][~~~~~

Julie was off somewhere else, while June was in Admin by himself, she had been called to fix something that had been messed up. That was fine! June was fine with this. Honestly, he needed to pull himself together. It wasn't like he was in danger or anything. He just didn't like being alone. The scare with the lights still bothered him for some reason.

Footsteps came down the hall, and June jumped before he saw who they were coming from. It was that guy in pink! He had seemed all right.

"Hello!" June called, smiling and waving over at the pink one. "February, right?"

"I-" he froze, then nodded. "Yes, that's my name!" he laughed awkwardly. "You're June, yeah?"

"Yeah!" June said, and stretched out, one hand holding his tablet close enough to the port that the download could continue, and the other extended to shake.

February stared, frozen, for a few moments, then accepted the handshake. "Sorry, I'm- I'm kind of out of it-"

"The lights thing spook you too?" June said, and February paused, then nodded. "Yeah. I don't know why I'm so on edge after that, but the lights going out that fast right after we got on seems off to me."

"It is weird." agreed February, quietly. "Ah-" he began, then stopped. "Never mind."

"No, it's all right!" June said, glancing at his screen. The download task was done! Now he had to head down to comms to send that over. "You have anything on the way to comms?"

"Oh, I was just about to ask!" February cried. He sounded relieved. "I have to prime or calibrate the shields or something. I don't see how that has anything to do with cooking but here we are!" he sighed, then looked down. "I'm not sure how to do that, really. The shields thing, I mean. I can cook, I meant-"

"Yeah, I got it." June said, smiling to himself. "I could show you! Julie was super excited before this mission, and watched a lot of stuff on how to do that sort of stuff right, and I watched some with her."

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh, _thank_ you!"

"Sure, no problem." June laughed. This February guy was okay. A bit over - the - top and awkward, but he hardly knew the guy. It was likely nerves or something.

"Oh, sorry, am I being a lot? People tell me that I'm a lot, sorry-" February had clearly heard the laugh in June's voice. _Crap_.

"Nonono it's okay!" June quickly amended. "I laugh at so many small things, it's an automatic response. Don't take it personally man-"

"Oh, okay." February sounded a little relieved.

"Right, so, Shields?"

"Shields, yes!"

The two of them walked in silence for a bit, ducking around the funny corners, and June spotted the first mate September talking with the captain January. They were clutching at their side, and it sounded as though they were hurting, which was concerning. From February's face, he had noticed too.

"I hope they're okay." February ventured, quietly, once they had passed the room and were out of earshot. "It would suck if something bad happened again, after the lights."

"It would, yeah." June agreed, glancing back at the hall, spotting September leaving, heading in the opposite direction. "I think they just went to medbay."

"Oh, wow, it's that bad?" February slumped. "I may not know much, but the captain didn't seem like someone who would let someone off on just a cold or something."

"Maybe it's airsickness." June wondered. "Or, space - sickness."

"Maybe." They were quiet again for a while after that, and they arrived at the shields - primer - thing shortly after. June gave February a quick run-through of how it worked, and February managed it very well. June was about to leave to transfer his data to comms, letting February take care of the rest of the shields, but before he could take more than a few steps, February called out to stop him.

"Hey, wait-"

"Yeah?" he turned around again and saw February peeking out from around the corner.

"I-" he began, then stopped, and mumbled something really quickly under his breath.

"Sorry?" June asked, tilting his head. "I missed that."

"It's nothing!" February said quickly and ducked back around the corner. "It was just a silly thought. Nothing important!"

June looked in confusion over at the corner, now empty of February, and considered pushing it but decided against it.

"All right then," he said, shrugged, and headed into comms. The room was empty, December had probably gone off somewhere to do something else.

June was standing, alone again, by the download port, waiting for the data from admin to offload to comms. He hummed to himself, wishing he had February, Julie, _anyone_ to talk to, but this was fine. There were only about ten feet of space between him and February, it was fine. This was fine-

-footsteps? Footsteps. someone was coming up behind him, through the door, and something that sounded like a tearing startled him, and he spun on his heel but only got halfway and saw someone in a dark-colored suit out of the corner of his eye when-

-it felt like something had shoved into him from behind, like someone had kneed him very hard in the back. June stumbled forward, but it felt as though he had something holding him back _through_ his body-

-he looked down.

_Oh, god, is that a needle-_

-it was long and sticking out of the middle of his abdomen and slightly thinner than his arm and kind of shiny and _oh no it moved-_

-his suit was turning red around the tear in the middle, and he tried to turn to see what was going on when the needle twisted and _tore_ backward-

-numbly, June spotted the barb on its end (since when did it have a barb on the end?) catch into him and stick, and he toppled backward into a sharp nest of teeth-

-teeth? _wait is this thing a tongue nO-_

-And then, finally, the pain that he had been dimly expecting came. There were needles in June's back and something tearing at his stomach and someone was screaming, he was screaming, and then he was falling to the floor face - first because the barbed tongue had finally managed to break out and whoever it belonged to was gasping for breath. For a moment, that was all June could hear. His heartbeat was so terrifyingly slow and quiet. 

June lay on the floor, wanting to curl up and cry but everything hurting too much for him to move, feeling the blood soak into his suit, staining it orange from its former yellow, fall out of his mouth onto the cracked glass of his mask visor and pool there. His insides felt twisted and torn and _wrong_ and he felt nauseous, someone was crying, was he crying?

Everything was blurry again, partly from tears and partly from June starting to slip away, people in comms were shouting about something, and June tried to listen and to answer but he couldn't-

-someone was running towards him, their every footfall shaking the floor and sending needles into June's wounded body-

-he was being moved, a blurry pink shape was rolling him over and dimly, through his blurred, bloodied, cracked mask visor, June saw February say something, but his ears were ringing from his fall to loudly to hear anything-

-his senses were leaving again, his hearing gone, his tongue going numb from the metallic blood in his mouth, his eyes falling shut-

-and then fell into the dark and felt nothing, at last. 


	8. round 2 || chapter 4

[tw for description of blood and gore]

"He's WHAT?"

"Dead, sir." February was shaking and trying not to cry, and it definitely leaked into his voice, but he didn't really care at all anymore, June was dead and they had parted on awkward terms and-

"No, he can't be-" July was saying, her voice breaking again and suddenly she laughed. "You better not be joking about this, it wasn't funny the first time. June! June, hey you've been foiled give it up-"

"I- I'm not joking, please-" February felt himself drop to his knees and saw the red puddle ripple as his hands splashed into it.

"I don't believe you!" July was shouting again, and she was about to say something else, probably some choice words at February when- her voice cut out.

"Oh god, _no_ , not her too!" That sounded like March.

"What?" The captain said, sounding more annoyed than sad. "No, she's not dead. I muted her, we need to be calm here-" 

" _Calm_?" July was back, somehow.

" _How_ did you get back in here." sighed January.

"You can't block me for long bitch, I know your clearance codes!" she shouted, then switched the topic quickly before January could process what she had said, barely letting him get a spluttered "hey!" in between. "You. Pink. Where is he, I still don't believe you-"

"Comms." whispered February, and dimly he noticed that his suit was getting stained from June's blood on the floor and all over him-

"I'm on my way. Medic, can you be there too? We the rest of you, to cafeteria to talk this over." January barked. "We'll join you in a few minutes. February, can you tell how he died?"

Fighting back nausea, February looked over the bloodied gash in June's stomach again, one of his hands hovering over the messy wound, shaking, his eyes blurring with tears again. "I-" he couldn't get the words out, and he hung his head, shaking it, before he realized that the captain couldn't see him. "I-" he began again, but was interrupted by August, speaking up for the first time.

"I'm almost there, I wasn't too far, February, you don't have to talk about it." she sounded kind. February hadn't had the chance to talk to her much before but she had seemed nice. He hoped she was nice. He needed nice right now, he was pretty sure that if the captain came in here with his terrifyingly cold words, February would break down.

"June!" someone was running down the hall again, and February's stomach sank. It was July, and he didn't want to be there when she saw June's ruined body but it was too late and she was there and-

"No!" she sounded choked up and horrified and she stumbled to her knees next to June, shaking, whispering something that sounded like "nonononono-"

"July, I-" February began, wondering how in hell was he going to comfort her now, but she didn't seem to hear him. She was just kneeling there, holding June's helmet in her hands and shaking, crying, pulling June's visor open-

"-hey, maybe you shouldn't do that-" began February, but July's choked scream stopped him, and he sucked in a sharp breath as well.

It... wasn't too badly hurt, torn, injured, but the amount of blood on it and dripping off of the mask's visor made it hard to tell at first, and to look at in general. June's rainbow hair that February had tried to complement just minutes ago was stained red in places, and Julie was sobbing again, February sitting next to her and not sure what to do-

~~~~~][~~~~~

January stumbled to a stop by the entrance to comms, heard crying, and immediately regretted existing. Why couldn't the emotionally competent doctor have shown up before him so he wouldn't have to deal with one (or two?) hysterical crewmates?

July was the one crying, he was pretty sure, but through February's visor, he looked as though he was pretty close to breaking down again too. Great.

"All right." he said, stepping into comms and immediately hearing a soft splash as his boot stepped into blood. "Ah- okay. let's just-" he spotted the body on the floor and immediately felt his insides turn. _He looks just like that poor other-_

"I'm here, captain!" _Oh thank goodness._ It was Ring, and she came to a halt next to January, careful not to step in the blood, and gasped softly, stepping over crouching next to the body on the floor. January watched her start to do her work. _Good. She'll help them. I'll just,,,, stand here. And pretend that I'm doing okay. Some captain I am._

He shoved those thoughts back and straightened up, put his hands behind his back so no one could see how white they were from being clenched in fists, and watched.

~~~~~][~~~~~

"Right. Okay." August was saying, looking over June, then glanced up at February and July and her expression, previously tight and pale, softened a bit. "You two alright?"

"No!" shouted July, letting go of June's head and letting it fall back onto the floor. "How can I be all right _here_?"

"That's fair." August said, looking away. "I-" -she swallowed, and twitched her head to knock back a strand of red hair that had slipped in front of her face- "I'm here if you need to talk or something."

"Right." July mumbled. She didn't sound convinced, and curled up with her head on her knees and arms wrapped around herself. Her dark blue suit was starting to stain purple in places from the red blood all over the room and her, but she didn't seem to care at all.

August looked up at her for a bit, then sighed, shook her head in apparent shock, and looked back at February, nodding in a "you alright?" way.

February shook his head the tiniest bit and August smiled sadly over, making a mental note to talk to him later, then looked down back at June. Poor kid, August wished she could help more.

"So?" January was standing in the doorway, trying to wipe the blood off of his boot and looking impatient. August glowered in frustration at his lack of care. _Read the room._ "Do we know his cause of death or-"

"Of course we know the cause of death!" burst out June, suddenly standing and glaring at the captain. August jumped, glancing up away from June. "He was murdered!"

"That's a bit of a hasty assumption-" January also sounded startled. At least a _little_.

"I think I know by _who_ , even!"

"Garcia." January said, his voice as cold as his name. "We'll save the accusations for the meeting, when we're all here to hear them out. For now, this is an autopsy and an autopsy only. Clear?" August could practically feel the temperature drop.

July was practically shaking again, she looked about ready to cuss out the captain again, but she looked down and August shook her head, pleading silently with the girl, and July said, nearly too quietly to hear, "Crystal."

~~~~~][~~~~~

"Good." January nodded, then took a step to the side and leaned over so he could see better. At this point, February felt like nothing but an onlooker to the scene, everything looked and sounded muffled and a hundred miles away, everything but his pulse slamming in his ears like an angry marching band's drummer.

Dimly, he heard August begin to explain what she thought had happened, but it only took the word "impaled" to send him right back into disassociation-land again.

~~~~~][~~~~~

"It looks like he's been impaled by something." August was saying, using her camera on her tablet to zoom in on the wound and scan it, seemingly unfazed by the bloody mess that was left of June's stomach. "Whatever it was, it had a hard time pulling back out again and did the most damage."

"It looks like a clean entry, but the exit was difficult." someone said, walking into the room and standing right behind January, making him jump.

"That's what I said, yes-" August began, and then looked up sharply. "Manelliot, when did you get in here?"

"Just now." Ee said, leaning over with eir hands on eir knees and examining the body. "Wanted to check out the scene of the crime and all."

January opened his mouth to protest, but spotted July clench her fists and teeth and move as though she were going to step forward to fight Manelliot. Freezing he quickly grabbed her arm and hissed "Stay where you are. Let me take care of em." to her, then turned to Manelliot. "I specifically told you to go and wait in the cafeteria."

"You told the crew as a _group_ to go, not me specifically." May said, not looking up. "Doctor, do you think it was barbed?"

"...What?" August looked over at May, then at February, January, and July in turn, as though to silently ask _"are you hearing this?"_

January nodded, raising his eyebrows and shoving back the surge of panic that suddenly decided to rear its ugly head. _Later. For another time_.

February just stared a thousand - yard - stare at the wall. January wasn't sure if he was even fully _there_ at the moment.

June was also staring, but _she_ was fully in the moment. Her eyes were dripping with tears, the liquid splashing onto her mask's visor and her breath fogging it up, she was clutching her shoulders and hugging herself, rocking a bit from side to side, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth-

The repetitive motion did the opposite of what it usually did, which was calm January, instead sending the horror and panic that he had been forcing down back to the forefront of his mind, bringing his situation into sharp focus-

"Not _now_!" he snapped, digging his hands into his sides. He had started to hug himself too, without even noticing.

"Sir?" August looked up from the discussion she had been having at a muttered volume with Manelliot.

"What?" January said, then realized that he had said that out loud. out _loud_ _loud loud-_ this was fine. "Sorry. Was responding to a message."

"Right. May here thinks that whatever it was, it was something sophisticated that killed him." August continued after giving January a look and a half of confusion and slight annoyance.

_I didn't know she is able be annoyed. Didn't seem capable of it, she's too nice. We all have our limits, I suppose. And I must have hit hers._

"So not a crude weapon? Like a stake?" January ventured, trying to regain control of the situation. His voice wavered at the start then evened out. _Good_.

"No. Whatever it was, it still stands that Juneau Garcia-"

"He likes- liked-" July broke in, her voice thick. "he doesn't mind if people just call him 'June'."

"June, my apologies. He died of imputation through the back and repeated trauma to vital organs." August finished, looking down at the body, then up to July. "I'm so so sorry, sweetie."

July just shook harder from her renewed sobs, and August swallowed and stood. "What should we do with the body?"

"There's bite marks on his back and shoulder." May said, out of nowhere.

"What?" January said, turning to the geologist. "That's nice. Now again, what are you doing here?" he had to find some thing to go on and on about now, the panic was coming back-

"To check out the scene of the crime." repeated Manelliot. "Look, can you leave me alone to do my thing?"

"No?" January said, appalled. "No we can't. your'e not authorized-"

"Hey, Feb." May was saying, looking over at the man in pink. "Was the body in this position when you found it or did you move it?"

"...What?" February was taking a minute to get out of his trance.

"Did you move June." May repeated. "I want to take a photo of what the crime scene was like before it all happened and things went all the way to hell."

"I-" February was stumbling over his words, but finally he managed to get some out. _Some_. "I turned him over, he was face down on the ground and-"

"right. Help me turn him back over?"

"May, is this really what we should be doing right now?" August asked, but May waved her off and started to roll June back onto his front. "Could someone _please_ help me turn him over- oof!"

January sighed, and started to leave. "We're going to the cafeteria. The rest are waiting for us."

"Right, give me a moment. February, does this look right?"

February must have nodded or something, because soon there was the click-click of the camera on May's tablet snapping some photos and the footsteps of May catching up to January, with February in tow.

~~~~~][~~~~~

"Hey, July?"

July could hardly hear the doctor's voice over her own breathing. It was so incredibly uncomfortably hot in her helmet but she didn't dare take it off and show her face all red and puffy, and see June's bloodied mess of one more clearly, and-

"July." August was sounding sharper now. "July, I need you to breath slowly for me, and also say something for me too. _Please_."

" _Yes, doctor_." July managed to force out.

"there you go." August's hand was on July's back, rubbing in small circles between her shoulders, and her voice was soft and kind. Julie liked her voice better than the captain's harsh-cold-snapping-all-the-time-at-everyone tone.

It was kind of like June's that way. Kind and gentle and always trying to help-

" _June_ -" Julie sobbed, her eyes filling with tears again and spilling over again, her voice breaking again and her hands starting to shake, [again], her knees buckling-

"-Whoa there, kiddo." exclaimed the doctor, catching Julie and lowering her slowly to a clean patch of ground.

"he's gone-"

"shhh, I know-"

"no you _don't_! you don't know what it's like to lose-"

"I _do_ , July, I do." August's voice caught on her words, and she looked down. "Sort of. My dad died when I was about your age and my mom hurt her head a few years later, both of them are gone now, more or less."

"You were close with your parents, then?" choked out July, putting her hands down on her lap and staring at the ground.

"Yeah. I'm going to guess you and June were too?"

"June was all the real family I had."

"I'm sorry." August's stomach felt cold. She had at least had her brothers and aunt after both her parents died in their own ways.

"Not your fault." whispered July, then gasped softly and collapsed forward to cry again.

"Do you want a hug?" August said, catching the girl to keep her from falling into the bloody puddle on the floor.

"That would be nice." She choked out, and leaned into august as she pulled her into a hug.

"There you go."

"Doctor, kid-" January cut into the two of their's silence and startled August, and she felt July tense under her arms.

"Captain." she said, softly.

"You finished?" he was clearly not in a mood to wait. "Hurry. Most of us are waiting in the cafeteria."

"Yes, captain." August sighed, and started to help July up again. "Come on, July-"

"You can call me Julie if you want. June did." she said, barely loud enough to hear. "Only you can though."

"Okay." August smiled under her helmet's visor and shook her head. "You heard the captain. We're expected. Do you think you can walk?"

"I'll manage." Julie said, dragging herself up with August's help, and the two of them headed back up through storage to the meeting. August glanced back at the pool of blood on the carpet and floor of the hall, swallowed back her sudden surge of fear, then turned and put a hand on Julie's shoulder, steering her forward.


End file.
